Wall Street sets new milestones following encouraging payrolls report
U.S. stocks continued to rally on Friday, with the S&P 500 closing above the 1,600 milestone level and the Dow hitting 15,000 points for the first time in history, boosted by optimistic U.S. nonfarm payrolls report in April.

The Dow surged 142.38 points, or 0.96 percent, to 14,973.96 points. The S&P 500 soared 16.83 points, or 1.05 percent, to 1,614. 42 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index leapt 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, to 3,378.63 points.

For the week, the Dow jumped 1.78 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 2.03 percent while the Nasdaq was up 3.03 percent.

U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 7.5 percent in April, its lowest level since December 2008, the Labor Department said Friday. Meanwhile, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, topping analysts' forecasts, it added.

The S&P 500 on Thursday set a record closing high, as last week 's jobless claims figure fell unexpectedly to a five-year low.

Good corporate earnings and easing monetary policies from global central banks added momentum to the market rally.

Shares of American International Group Inc. jumped 5.67 percent to 44.52 dollars a share one day after the New York-based insurance company reported first-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates.

The European Central Bank on Thursday cut its benchmark refinancing rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its stimulus policy in place after its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

Other data out on Friday came in negative, but the market seemed not to care about them and kept moving higher.

The U.S. non-manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) decreased to 53.1 in April from 54.4 in March, the lowest in nine months, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Any reading above 50 means expansion.

New orders for manufactured goods in March dropped 4.0 percent, the biggest decline in seven months, following a 1.9 percent increase in the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday.

After the strong rally, the stock market will see a dip in May, Joseph C. Greco, managing director-trading & sales of Meridian Equity Partners, told Xinhua in a telephone interview. He didn't expect the market to reverse the seasonal market pattern of "sell in May and go away."

The U.S. stock market has posted a strong rally since the start of this year, with the Dow and the S&P 500 repeatedly setting new highs since March. Year to date, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were up 14.27 percent, 13.20 percent and 11.89 percent respectively.

Greco predicted that the equity market would be lower at the end of this year, believing that there was a bit of bubble in the stock market.